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Why do people hate ENG dubs on anime?


Gold Vanguard
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Whenever I go on to youtube or any others site thats has anime videos and the voices are in english people always bitch about and in up starting flame wars. Why do people hate ENG dubs so much? There not that bad.

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Cause sometimes they just sound bad, like they don't fit the character or they don't express the emotions as well as the japanese dub well there are times where Japanese dub can lack some form of emotion here and there. Though, I have to admit, English dubbing is slowly getting better but I will always prefer subs.

Edited by Kramgnauh
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Because Wendy Lee is in fucking everything.

Joking aside, there are a lot of times where the character's personality and the way they look and move don't match with the English voice actor. Personally, there are a few shows out there where I actually like the dub, if not enjoy more. For example: Dragon Ball/Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, Love Hina, Full Metal Alchemist, Fushigi Yuugi.

A lot of the time, though, you wind up getting a voice actor who seems to just be reading the lines and using the intonation that the script gives (ie. say this line like you're astonished) instead of acting the part of the character.

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because they can understand them

This is actually really accurate. No joke.

People are weeaboos and Japanophiles. They'll get into anime from stuff on Toonami like DBZ and Pokemon and be fine with the dubs then, but then they go on the internet and hear of elitists watching the "original" version and end up jumping on the bandwagon that "all dubs suck" when many are actually very good. It's not uncommon to find English dubs of anime that are either on par with or even better than the Japanese audio, but many people just won't accept it.

It's funny when people who don't know a word of Japanese say things like "the acting is better in Japanese!" because they have absolutely no right to judge the acting when they are not fluent in the language. And that's why Hikarusa's post is accurate; they can judge English acting, so they can criticize it, but Japanese is just moonspeak to them, so they don't know any better.

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I just can't watch subs. Sadly, anything without a dub is right off my to watch list for the moment. Like xmas said, 'I'd rather watch an anime than watch text'. It's more of a chore than entertainment sometimes since you either have to keep up or stop and pause it every few seconds. I've watched so much dubbed anime that even Negima's english dub doesn't bother me (anymore).

Now that RF mentions it ... some of the original VAing I have heard are really irritating.

Edited by Phoenix
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I love dubbed anime. With a few exceptions (Mae in Clannad, most of the Diclonius in Elfen Lied) I've never watched a dub I wholeheartedly hated. In fact, I daresay with the exception of Light's subbed laugh, Death Note's dub was vastly superior to the subbed version.

Most of the time, English dubbed is my favorite, and subbed is usually a pretty good alternative. I have nothing against subbed, but I prefer dubbed, basically.

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because they can understand them

Haha. Yes.

In all seriousness. It's because this and they think the JPN dub is better. Or something.

Hell if I know. People are weird.

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I don't mind subs and reading text, in fact, it's easier for me. I've never had to pause for the subtitles, ever. I have some listening comprehension problems (I think that's what it is) so sometimes dubs are harder to understand unless there are subtitles for the dub. Which I find kind of pointless, so I generally go with Japanese subbed.

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Fact; if a dubbed anime has subs also, the subs are always way off of what the actors are saying, which is super annoying >.>

VLC lets you turn off subtitles pretty easily.

I'll always try out the dub if it's available. Dubs let you do something else while you're watching, which is nice.

Edited by Anouleth
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I don't mind subs and reading text, in fact, it's easier for me. I've never had to pause for the subtitles, ever.

Heyyy I'm not the only person who feels this way! I think it depends on the series though really. I hate watching Evangelion in english specifically, but I really liked a lot of other shows like Cowboy Bebop and DBZ in english. I usually download a dual audio anyway, and then try english dub first. If I like it I stick with it, and if I don't I switch to subbed.

Also I think RedFox has a point; since most of us don't understand Japanese we can't really judge poor acting so it seems to work fine to us.

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I do tend to like a good english dub more than a good japanese dub. But while bad JP voice acting doesn't easily come to mind for me, I can think of english dubs I hate. Maybe it IS harder for me to notice totally derpy seeming VA'ing in english, or there is less of it in Japanese. I don't know.

Also, if it's a sub, and the subs are terrible, that's usually a lot funnier than watching something with bad voice acting.

"We have nothing to treat beat her with!"

It's funny when people who don't know a word of Japanese say things like "the acting is better in Japanese!" because they have absolutely no right to judge the acting when they are not fluent in the language. And that's why Hikarusa's post is accurate; they can judge English acting, so they can criticize it, but Japanese is just moonspeak to them, so they don't know any better.

Let's say you're watching a sub, or even a japanese episode without subs. A character is saying something in Japanese, in a really cool-headed/hyper and energetic/depressed/insulting/angry or at least annoyed/whiny way. Chances are you CAN at least sometimes notice this emotion from listening to their voice, even if you don't understand the words. Isn't that amazing?

Some really perceptive and intelligent watchers (granted, I certainly don't consider myself this perceptive, and it's rare to meet someone who is) might even be able to read the subs and listen to the voices at the same time, and match the apparent mood of the voice to the words that are being listed in the subtitles! This is very hard to do and requires immense concentration. I wouldn't recommend it to people who have an IQ below 150 because their brains might explode, so don't sue me. Also, there are drawbacks. Subs might be synched incorrectly. And even if they're synched "correctly," it's not like each word spoken by the character in japanese is subbed individually, SO IF ITS A FARILY LONG SENTENCE YOU CANT KNOW THE EMOTIONAL EMPHASIS ON A GIVEN WORD!?!?!?!?! (unless they're speaking with lots of pauses - Aizen during his scene in the central 46 comes to mind).

Shoot me now, subs suck. I'm gonna go watch One Piece 4Kids now to redeem my sins.

That being said, even in a terribly synched sub you might be able to read the mood while watching the events, and then match it to a sentence that fits those events. I remember this happening in my DVD of Excel Saga that only had japanese + subtitles in one episode. The subs were at least a minute behind the episode at one point, but I still had a good understanding of what was going on (I mean come on how complex is Excel Saga anyway). Obviously this was annoying as hell, and one of Excel's english VAs is really good anyway, but I don't think the series was localized in the US at that time...[/spoilers]

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This is actually really accurate. No joke.

People are weeaboos and Japanophiles. They'll get into anime from stuff on Toonami like DBZ and Pokemon and be fine with the dubs then, but then they go on the internet and hear of elitists watching the "original" version and end up jumping on the bandwagon that "all dubs suck" when many are actually very good. It's not uncommon to find English dubs of anime that are either on par with or even better than the Japanese audio, but many people just won't accept it.

It's funny when people who don't know a word of Japanese say things like "the acting is better in Japanese!" because they have absolutely no right to judge the acting when they are not fluent in the language. And that's why Hikarusa's post is accurate; they can judge English acting, so they can criticize it, but Japanese is just moonspeak to them, so they don't know any better.

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I appreciate both kinds of voice acting.

Hell I even have a third language in which I can judge the voice acting of.

However, in general I like Japanese voice acting more and voice acting is a bigger industry in Japan.

They are able to obtain world-renowned fame since it's so big over there.

Despite that opinion, there's no need whatsoever to bash a dub unless it's judging the material itself... For example, "Chaos Wars" and "Arc Rise Fantasia".

Those are "audio atrocities" in of itself.

But unless they're THAT bad, there's no reason why people should automatically start flame wars.

Haha. Yes.

In all seriousness. It's because this and they think the JPN dub is better. Or something.

Hell if I know. People are weird.

*cough* There are a few rare cases in which the people legitimately play both versions of the games/watch both versions of the shows and legitimately like one better than the other.

Fact; if a dubbed anime has subs also, the subs are always way off of what the actors are saying, which is super annoying >.>

Klok, if you have dual audio anime and it has subs, you can turn them off, ya know?

Screw you guys, I can watch it in Japanese and have subs off.

Barring 1st Mate Bob, of course, since he's actually in Japan.

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Let's say you're watching a sub, or even a japanese episode without subs. A character is saying something in Japanese, in a really cool-headed/hyper and energetic/depressed/insulting/angry or at least annoyed/whiny way. Chances are you CAN at least sometimes notice this emotion from listening to their voice, even if you don't understand the words. Isn't that amazing?

There is much more to acting than emotion.

That being said, even in a terribly synched sub you might be able to read the mood while watching the events, and then match it to a sentence that fits those events. I remember this happening in my DVD of Excel Saga that only had japanese + subtitles in one episode. The subs were at least a minute behind the episode at one point, but I still had a good understanding of what was going on (I mean come on how complex is Excel Saga anyway). Obviously this was annoying as hell, and one of Excel's english VAs is really good anyway, but I don't think the series was localized in the US at that time...

That's just overly tedious and defeats the purpose of watching a tv show.

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I was saying that if you're one of those people who wants to watch a dubbed anime and have subtitles going too, the subtitles are always way off what the actors are satying, which is annoying.

This isn't rocket science. Haha I lied, it is.

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Probably because some voices don't fit the characters.

^This... is horrible when you make a comparison between the english dub and the original japanese, and seeing that the english dub doesn't fit very well with the original japanese =(

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Fact; if a dubbed anime has subs also, the subs are always way off of what the actors are saying, which is super annoying >.>

Actually, I've seen some shows that had two sets of English subtitles: one for the dub and one for the Japanese audio. Well, the Ghibli movies all have this, at least...

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because they can understand them

This is generally what I have come to understand. Most viewers of subbed anime are not associated with the language, so lack the ability to differentiate between the subtle intonations and little eccentricities many actors make. They have no frame of reference to compare an actor to, and since they can't really retain a lot of what these actors say because they don't know the language, it remains largely that way. In addition, the content someone sees first is generally that which most impacts them, so unless the change is one of marked increase in quality, they will probably interpret it as some kind of debasement of the original.

I was saying that if you're one of those people who wants to watch a dubbed anime and have subtitles going too, the subtitles are always way off what the actors are satying, which is annoying.

Subtitles have the ability to more accurately convey what a person is saying, since they don't have to worry about lip synching. For example, the expression お疲れ様でした (otsukaresamadeshita) is generally translated along the lines of "(you)/(we) worked hard today". But the original expression has nine syllables, but I guess you could shorten it to seven or eight if you were pushing it. So unlike in the subs when they could just approximate the meaning, dubs have to increase or sometimes decrease the volume of speech to fit their mouths. So the person might end up saying, "You sure did a great job today!" This can of course come out sounding wooden and very wrong because of the cultural barriers, even if acted well at times. So there's that too.

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I prefer subs because my hearing is really bad and can read fast, but I don't mind subbing over dubbed either unless the dub has really annoying voices. I might not be able to make out what they're saying sometimes, but the tonage and the pitch can still bother me to hell. But the same can go with those "moe" type voices in the original language anyway. Probably will just mute it if the voices bother me that much whatever language it is. Haven't watched anime in a long time anyway.

Edited by Fat Bunny
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Oh I have no problem with dubs, I have problems with shows getting butchered in the localization process, doesn't always happen but I can think of at least one that apparently made it their job to alter and butcher darn near everthing good about the original show.

Honestly I prefer dubs so I don't have to divert my attention from the action to understand what is being said.

Edited by iavasechui
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